


blood shaped heart

by amorias



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Break Up, F/M, No Context
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-25
Updated: 2017-01-25
Packaged: 2018-09-19 19:56:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9458147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amorias/pseuds/amorias
Summary: Artemis knows that she is not weak, but she feels as though she is.





	

The phone rings for half a minute, and Artemis knows he's holding himself back.

“Hey,” Wally breathes as soon as he picks up the phone.

“Hey,” she repeats, shivering in the night air. She stepped outside to make this phone call, afraid her roommate would hear. They're quiet for a moment too long and she breathes out, willing her heart to slow down.

“What's up?” He asks, and Artemis can feel her face flushing for no reason.

“Um... I... well,” she flounders for words, trying to figure out the best way to say this. It's been so long, and she misses him, and she thinks he misses her too. She gulps in some air to try and relieve the weight resting squarely on her sternum. “Can I come over?” She mumbles out, feeling stupid. She opens her mouth to talk again but she's cut off by him saying “yes.”

 

When she arrives at his new place, it's a shabby-looking back house, nothing more than a bedroom, a kitchen, and a bathroom and looking like a bachelor pad. Which, Artemis guesses, it is now. She swallows back the lump forming in her throat as she approaches as she can see him through the glass door, partially hidden by the half-closed blinds. He turns his head to the side and notices her, opening the door before she can knock, and she comes in and it's warm and somehow not awkward at all as she drops her backpack on the ground and sits on the couch.

They make small talk about things – family, classes. Life after superheroing. Artemis tells him that she's thinking about going back to the Team, and Wally falters just long enough for her to notice.

“Wait, are you staying here tonight or are you going back to your place?” He asks abruptly, in the middle of talking about how Jade and Roy are living with her mother, and Artemis is thrown off guard for just a moment before regaining her composure.

“I'm... staying here tonight,” she says, avoiding his eyes. “Like, I'll just sleep on the couch or whatever.” She shrugs apathetically. She doesn't even know what she's doing here, but she needs it.

“You're lucky, I just got that couch a week ago,” Wally says, some semblance of his normal goofy grin tugging at his lips, and she resists the urge to smile back.

They talk for a long time, the space heater in the corner creaking, the rain pounding against the glass of the doors, soft music playing in the background that Wally must have put on before she got there. The conversation reaches a natural lull and they're quiet for awhile, and it's too comfortable, and Artemis is struck by how ridiculous this situation is, and when she chances a glance over at him, he's sitting in his chair, eyes on the ground until he looks up and meets her gaze for an awkward breath.

“Do you want to watch a movie, or something?” He asks, getting up suddenly, and Artemis can only nod, choked by the atmosphere of the room.

By the time the movie ends, it's one in the morning, and Artemis is fighting to stay awake. They're comfortably quiet, both sitting on the couch, her feet just barely touching the side of his thigh.

“Um,” he throws out, running a hand through his hair. “Do you want to watch something else?” He's already half up off the couch as he says it, and Artemis surges forward, unexpected even to herself.

“Wait,” she says without thinking, the word bursting forth without permission and her hand grasping hastily at his forearm. He slowly settles back down onto the couch and looks at her before bringing his free hand over and stroking the hand that rests on his arm, like it's normal. It was normal, at one point, and they both know that, and Artemis's skin heats up at his touch. Wally leans into her, his head against her chest and she closes her eyes, leaning her head forward to bring her chin to just touch the top of his head.

When he pulls back, the eye contact, the soft tilt of his head, the close proximity of their foreheads and noses, and she knows he wants to kiss her. She puts a hand to his chest, gentle in the way that it always has been only for him, and pushes him away, slowly, carefully.

Agonizingly.

She closes her eyes, dropping her chin towards her chest and he gets up, going to change into his pajama pants, and she pointedly looks at the ground.

“So... the couch?” He says, shaking her from her stupor, and she blinks her gaze up to him. He's avoiding her gaze and his cheeks are flushing pink, making his faded-out freckles stand out like they did when he was 15 and invincible. “You can sleep in my bed. If you wanted, I mean. You don't have to, or whatever.” He rubs his neck uncomfortably and Artemis pretends to contemplate for a moment, at least for her own self respect, because she already knows what she's going to do.

She crawls over onto his bed and he gets in next to her, maintaining a distance at first.

“Can I...” he trails off, and she just nods, her head making scratching noises against the pillow, and he scoots closer, vibrating warmth flooding her back as he presses up against her, planting soft kisses against her shoulder blades.

The light is turned off and they whisper to each other for an hour before Artemis's voice drops off in the middle of a sentence and he kisses her at the nape of her neck and falls into a fitful sleep.

 

The light swimming in from behind the blinds is greyed out and pale, deceptively looking like early morning even though it's already nine. Artemis blinks her eyes open and Wally is already awake, his back turned to her.

“Did you sleep at all?” She asks, quietly, as if afraid to disturb the quiet of morning, and reaches over him to grab at her phone.

“A bit,” he shrugs. She pauses, scrolling through her text messages, hovering over him. As she locks her phone, she turns her gaze to him and his eyes are drifting over her face.

“I so want to kiss you right now,” he whispers, voice revealing the pain behind his words, and she has to look away from him. She wants to kiss him too, but she knows that if they do, it's over. Things can never go back – last night might have been a mistake, but kissing Wally would be an irreparable one that they cannot recover from. They lock eyes as she chances a glance over at him, and she just shakes her head the smallest amount, jaw tight.

He nods – he understands, he always did, and he always would, and the brick-cold feeling of guilt swims through Artemis. She sits up, purposely looking away as he turns his back to her and starts to change clothes, instead examining a wrinkle in the sheets and vehemently ignoring the pricking of her eyes.

“It's probably best if this doesn't happen again,” she says, willing her voice to steady itself.

Wally turns his head as he pulls on his t-shirt – long sleeved and red, clashing with his searing hair but bringing out the green in his eyes, had it almost as long as Artemis has known him – and he examines her.

“Yeah. I know.”

She gets up to leave and they hug in the doorway, her body enveloped in his heat, chin starting to tremble embarrassingly. Honestly, Artemis is amazed at the fact that she's managed to keep it together for this long – tears threaten to spill over, but she holds it in, the knot in her throat strangling her, until she leaves the house, not even making it to the car before she starts crying and has to hurriedly wipe at her eyes with her sleeve, hoping he's not looking through the glass door as she travels down the doorway, but maybe somewhere hoping that he is.

She sits in her beat up car for too long, letting the engine run and the radio play as she wipes furiously at her leaking eyes, angry at herself for the whole thing. She stares hard over the steering wheel, willing herself to stop crying, and she reminds herself that she is not weak, even if she feels as though she is.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> this fic is kind of Too Real but [shrugs] hope you enjoy! like comment and share if you did!! tumblr is @ivankarelin and headcanon tumblr is @motokiharuna


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